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This is the sky over my house. https://t.co/gHON08EHyV

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This is the sky over my house. https://t.co/gHON08EHyV


Posted by wilw on Sat Jul 23 22:44:58 2016.


554 likes, 57 retweets


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Smidget8403
3002 days ago
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The Sonoran Desert
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Wonderful Moment of the Day: Watch This Dad React to Finding Out He Will be a Grandfather

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Submitted by: (via Jessica Hickey)

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Smidget8403
3822 days ago
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The Sonoran Desert
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Free Speech

21 Comments and 73 Shares
I can't remember where I heard this, but someone once said that defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you're saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it's not literally illegal to express.
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popular
3825 days ago
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Smidget8403
3829 days ago
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The Sonoran Desert
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20 public comments
pavlov02
3818 days ago
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Just seems like common sense to me but that seems in short supply.
merlinblack
3822 days ago
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Not applicable in Canada but a good lesson I'm discourse.
ÜT: 53.542319,-113.494597
Romanikque
3822 days ago
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Alt text is better than the comic for this one...
Baltimore, MD
tewhalen
3829 days ago
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Wikipedia: "The Citizens' Councils used economic tactics against African Americans whom they considered as supportive of desegregation and voting rights, or for belonging to the NAACP; the tactics included 'calling in' their mortgages, denying loans and business credit, and boycotting black-owned businesses. In some cities, the Councils published lists of names of NAACP supporters and signers of anti-segregation petitions in local newspapers in order to encourage economic retaliation. For instance, in Yazoo City, Mississippi in 1955, the Citizens' Council arranged for the names of 53 signers of a petition for school integration to appear in a local paper. Soon afterward, the petitioners lost their jobs and had their credit cut off." -- Apparently, no free speech rights were violated.
chicago, il
grammargirl
3829 days ago
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Yup.
Brooklyn, NY
stefanetal
3829 days ago
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This strikes me as an 'argument from definition'. But the definition itself is contested. Lot of rights don't work this way, for instance there are non-retaliation laws asociated with many rights (especially in labor law -- say the right to marry includes the right, for the most part, not to get fired for getting married).
Northern Virginia
tewhalen
3829 days ago
Like, remember this comic when your supervisor shows up to your cubicle and asks you to donate to the "Conservative Victory Fund PAC" or lose your job. At least you'll have the comfort of knowing your free speech rights weren't violated.
chrisamico
3829 days ago
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I'd love to post this at the end of every news site's comments policy.
Boston, MA
diannemharris
3829 days ago
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I have to save this for future postings, everywhere
satadru
3829 days ago
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It's dawning on me that wikipedia needs Tl;DR links pointing to the relevant xkcd pages.
New York, NY
ChrisDL
3829 days ago
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You haven't lived until you've shared an XKCD online
New York
sfringer
3829 days ago
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Couldn't be better stated on free speech...
North Carolina USA
neilcar
3829 days ago
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Eventually, XKCD will be the answer for every ridiculous argument.
Charlotte, North Carolina
karmakaze
3830 days ago
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Alt text: I can't remember where I heard this, but someone once said that defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you're saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it's not literally illegal to express.
07974
darastar
3830 days ago
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THIS X1000
ktgeek
3830 days ago
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Yet another xkcd that will be reposted and reposted until the sun burns out.
Bartlett, IL
Michdevilish
3830 days ago
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Free to leave
Canada
JayM
3830 days ago
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.
Atlanta, GA
[deleted]
3829 days ago
...
aaronwe
3830 days ago
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There should be a "BUT FREE SPEECH!" corollary to Godwin's Law.
Denver
mindspillage
3830 days ago
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This was basically designed to be passive-aggressively linked to in mailing lists/forums/IRC...
north bay, California
stavrosg
3830 days ago
I can't count how many times this would have been useful in the past...
sulrich
3821 days ago
and for that reason it's getting an expansion snippet.
jtgrimes
3830 days ago
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Alt text: I can't remember where I heard this, but someone once said that defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you're saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it's not literally illegal to express.
Oakland, CA

susiephone: 'ten fashion trends men ha—' 'it's a huge turn off when you—' 'men think you should...

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susiephone:

'ten fashion trends men ha—'

image

'it's a huge turn off when you—'

image

'men think you should stop—'

image

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Smidget8403
3906 days ago
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The Sonoran Desert
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3906 days ago
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1 public comment
grammargirl
3907 days ago
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Sharing these gifs for future reference. #idontcaaaaaaaaaare
Brooklyn, NY
superiphi
3906 days ago
excellent idea!

Open Letter

18 Comments and 46 Shares
Are you ok?  Do you need help?
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Smidget8403
4022 days ago
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The Sonoran Desert
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4022 days ago
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17 public comments
josephwebster
4019 days ago
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Finally some rational political discourse.
Denver, CO, USA
Demagog
4021 days ago
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Well, but where is MiB and Greys and a lot of other secret rulers of the (not-so-good-site) of the Atlantic Ocean
beerland
4021 days ago
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YES.
Kensington, California
mrobold
4021 days ago
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Also, please make more bacon.
Orange County, California
herrmann
4022 days ago
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Forgot to mention the Majestic 12...
Brazil
sjk
4022 days ago
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Maybe all the organizations the control the US government are too busy arguing with the other members of the cabal to get organized?
Florida
MEVincent
4022 days ago
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If only this were true...
Manassas, Virginia
joshpennington
4022 days ago
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Yes. Please.
Saint Joseph, MI
bobfa
4022 days ago
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PLEASE!!!!
hannahdraper
4023 days ago
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Yep.
Washington, DC
MourningDragon
4023 days ago
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Full Frontal Truth...
yashimii
4023 days ago
Lols. If it wasn't so sad.
JayM
4023 days ago
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Ha! Definitely!
Atlanta, GA
ToToR65
4023 days ago
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Grève forcée des fonctionnaires US (pas en France que ça arriverait ><)
ashtonbt1
4023 days ago
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Word. This is amazing.
MaryEllenCG
4023 days ago
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Seriously, now.
Greater Bostonia
bronzehedwick
4023 days ago
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Alt text: "Are you ok? Do you need help?"
Tarrytown, NY

Menace

13 Comments and 26 Shares
Power is intoxicating. Everyone loves having the ability to make their decisions into reality — to think "this should be something that happens," and then actually be able to make that thing happen. 

It is also dangerous. 

And it is especially dangerous when applied to four-year-olds. 

Four-year-olds lack the experience to wield power responsibly. They have no idea what to do with it or how to control it.


But they like it.


The dinosaur costume was the greatest thing that had ever happened to me. The previous Halloween, which was the first Halloween I could actually remember, my parents had dressed me as a giant crayon, and the whole experience had been really uncomfortable for me.


But being a dinosaur felt natural.


And powerful. 


The feeling had been slowly intensifying ever since I put the costume on that morning, and, as I stood there in the middle of the classroom, staring off into the distance in an unresponsive power trance, it finally hit critical mass.

I had to find some way to use it. Any way. Immediately.


The other children screamed and fled. The teacher chased me, yelling at me to stop. But I couldn't stop.  I was a mindless juggernaut, a puppet for forces far greater than myself. 


All I knew was that being a dinosaur felt very different from being a person, and I was suddenly able to do things I had never even dreamed of before.


Of course, I had always had the ability to do these things — even as a person — but I didn't know that. I'd just assumed that I was unable.  As a dinosaur, I didn't have any of those assumptions.  It felt like I could do whatever I wanted without fear of repercussions.


The repercussions were also exactly the same as they were before I became a dinosaur.


I just experienced them differently.


My parents had to come pick me up at noon that day.  The teacher explained that it must have been all the Halloween candy.  "Some kids really can't handle sugar," she said.  "It turns them into little monsters."


I suppose it was a reasonable enough conclusion, but it only served as a distraction from the real problem.


The thing about being an unstoppable force is that you can really only enjoy the experience of being one when you have something to bash yourself against. You need to have things trying to stop you so that you can get a better sense of how fast you are going as you smash through them. And whenever I was inside the dinosaur costume, that is the only thing I wanted to do.


The ban on sugar provided a convenient source of resistance. As long as I was not supposed to eat sugar, I could feel powerful by eating it anyway. 


I'm sure the correlation started to seem rather strong after a while. I'd find some way to get sugar into myself, and then — drunk on the power of doing something I wasn't supposed to —I would morph into a horrible, psychotic monster. To any reasonable observer, it would appear as though I was indeed having a reaction to the sugar.


My parents were so confused when when the terror sprees continued even after the house had been stripped of sugar. They were sure they had gotten rid of all of it. . . did I have a stash somewhere? Was I eating bugs or something?

They still weren't suspicious of the costume.  


I lost weeks in a power-fueled haze. I often found myself inside the costume without even realizing I had put it on. One moment, I would be calmly drawing a picture, and the next I'd be robotically stumbling toward my closet where the dinosaur costume was and putting myself inside it.

It started to happen almost against my will.


Surely my parents made the connection subconsciously long before they became aware of what was really going on. After weeks of chaos, each instance punctuated by the presence of the costume, I have to imagine that the very sight of the thing would have triggered some sort of Pavlovian fear response.


They did figure it out eventually, though.


And the costume was finally taken away from me.


I was infuriated at the injustice of it all. I had become quite dependent on the costume, and it felt like part of my humanity was being forcibly and maliciously stripped away.  I cursed my piddling human powers and their uselessness in the situation. If only I could put on the costume . . .  just one more time.


But that was the costume's only weakness — it couldn't save itself. I had to watch helplessly as it disappeared inside a trash bag. 

There was nothing I could do.


And so my reign of power came to an end, and I slowly learned to live as a person again.





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Smidget8403
4027 days ago
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4027 days ago
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11 public comments
clinthowarth
4025 days ago
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The "Something is wrong. Something is going to happen." is absolutely correct.
jenniferoboyle
4026 days ago
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Hyperbole and a Half!
nschively
4027 days ago
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Awesome
Baltimore, MD
adamgurri
4027 days ago
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dinosaurs are more powerful than parents
New York, NY
subbes
4027 days ago
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This certainly doesn't alleviate my concern about Allie's mental wellbeing.
superberg
4027 days ago
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Masks allow us to stop hiding what we really are.
Palatine, IL
effingunicorns
4027 days ago
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The power... the POWER...
Michdevilish
4027 days ago
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evolve or get sent to the dump...
Canada
TheUnchosenOne
4027 days ago
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A new Hyperbole and a Half!
Madison, WI
glenn
4027 days ago
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As good an explanation as any to explain politicians and their behavior :)
Waterloo, Canada
craigrettig
4027 days ago
Well, most of them *are* dinosars in their own right.
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